*The 2025 race season at 81 Speedway is underway. With 6 classes of action on the track and a full moon in the sky, the green flag dropped this past Saturday night!
PHOTO CRED: 81 Speedway Jr. Racers Kids Club
*The new year has already brought us an amazing new Victory Lane courtesy of Logan’s Landscape and tree service. His crew worked all day to build what could be one of the best-looking VL’s in the country!!! Come check it out.
We opened up the night with the TM Fencing LLC Super Stocks. The class was honoring the late Jason McGehee. Under the lights during the parade lap, the McGehee family rode in the pace truck as the “missing man” formation circled the speedway. Off to a great start, driving the 5 was Shawn Allen jr. trying hard to place the McGehee entry on the podium, but Kenny Sweet and Jerrod Reimer had other plans. The two battled lap after lap, with Reimer staying close to the rear bumper of Sweet. When the checkers dropped, it was the Champ Jerrod Reimer taking the first A-Feature win of the season, Chris Eveland 2nd and Shawn Allen jr for 3rd.
*Up next was the Poormans Auto Supply USRA B-mods. In the heat races, finding the scales was Josh Lanterman and KC Mullin getting the W’s out of the way early. For the feature, it was Travis Johnson off to a blazing lead. Josh Lanterman was closing in but couldn’t quite “handle the heat” as his engine became hot and had to pull in under caution with 4 to go. This allowed the 7th starting Tyler Kidwell to advance to finish 2nd, KC Mullin 3rd, and Travis Johnson taking the trophy home and winning on this night.
*The Wickham Heating and Air Conditioning Mini Stock/ Tuner division has become one of the largest and funnest divisions at the speedway. With 23 mini stocks checking in, we lined them up for 3 heat races. Out of the gate, Drake Jaeger, Tyler Griffitts, and “locally hated” Rustin Allen all “parked it” for heat race wins. The A-feature brought a load of action and new racers to the top 5. After a quick red flag to check on a race official that jumped away from a disaster, the dust settled while watching Kaaaaarssson Keeler running down the leader for a turn 4 shot at victory. Beating him to the line was an emotional youngster, Kaishen Brack in Logan’s Landscape Victory Lane. Keeler 2nd, Drake Jaeger 3rd, newcomer Merina Coleman 4th, and Andy Smith getting a top 5.
*The Alternative Pest Management USRA Modifieds took to the speedway with Hollywood Tyler Davis on the point and never looked back as he clipped off his first win of the season. In chase behind the 65 was Kirby Robe, that at times was really moving fast to garner 2nd. In a hard-charging effort after watching the heat race from the caboose spot, Dan Powers drove up ten spots for a solid 3rd place finish. Austin Rogers 4th, and Kenton Allen locked in at 5th. This division is paying $5000 to win the championship, and anyone has a shot with the “drop 2” rule in effect. So if you missed this week , join us next week and #racelocal.
*I will just say it, the Allied battery stock cars are my favorite division at 81 Speedway. Every week they check in the most cars and bring the most action to the track!! There are so many drivers in that class that could win on any given night. The heat races had a bunch of passing and really shuffled the deck for the B and the A-feature! Multi-time track champion Clint Smith worked through the B-feature only to grab 2nd to B00B Car of Kendall Kemp who won the B-feature. Twenty-Four drivers rolled around the speedway at the start of the A-Main , and by that time the track had developed two lines, thanks to Jake, Gene, John, and the crew who fought the wind all day and night to keep it racy! Mason Schell was off to an incredible start and looked to fend off several challenges to take his spot led for 10 laps. Scott Miller and Bad Beau Davis battled from that point for the top spot. The choose Credit King Choose Cone was utilized throughout the night and seemed to have the biggest impact here as many drivers took advantage and gained some positions by taking a path less chosen!! Beau Davis held them off again and visited beautiful victory lane again for his second win this season! Scott Miller 2nd, Joey Richmond 3rd, Mason Schell 4th, and Clint Smith getting through the pack to nab 5th. Come watch the Allied battery stock cars; they alone are worth the price of admission.
*The night cap was the JLR property management 316 Modifieds, with a lot of drivers not having their equipment quite ready. Only nine cars checked in, and we saw a dominating performance by Ryan McAninch! With only a tire smoking challenging him, it left a good battle between James Weve and FFF (Fred Freeman) to grab the runner-up spot. At the end, Weve topped FFF for 2nd, Freddy 3rd, and it was great to see Jayme Ridpath fighting for a 4th-place spot. Tanner Thiel 5th.
*Come out next week and enjoy the show! Thank you again to Russell Logan and the crew for making Victory Lane a place that all drivers want to be even more now.